Sterigenics: Winning the War, Part 4

In our first three essays (Part 1, Part-2, and Part 3 ), we recounted how a small group of past employees of Hinsdale South High School (South) banded together to notify other past employees of their exposure to ethylene oxide (EtO) while they worked at South. This Notification Project was inspired by the efforts of a grassroots community group, Stop Sterigenics, which successfully got the source of that EtO, two Willowbrook Sterigenics medical instrument sterilization plants, closed—temporarily in February 2019, and permanently seven months later. The efforts of both Stop Sterigenics and this group of past South employees in taking on the problems of local pollution sources and the challenges of informing past workers of potential health issues which came to light later (in some cases, decades after employment had ended) points to some larger issues as we move beyond Willowbrook and Hinsdale South High School. In other words, it’s wonderful what those two groups have accomplished, but now what?

First and foremost, EtO should never be released anywhere near humans, and its use should be regulated much more strictly than it currently is. Sterigenics closed its Willowbrook facilities, but has yet to concede the closure resulted from its pollution, claiming it was the “unstable legislative regulatory landscape ” of Illinois which led to its departure. As of yet, the company remains adamant that its EtO release had no ill effects on those who lived and worked near them. Sterigenics and various companies continue to release EtO in other communities throughout the U.S., and throughout the world. Willowbrook is, after 34 years, safe from EtO pollution, but Georgia and New Mexico (to name two) are still battling industry efforts to release EtO, and Sterigenics alone has 49 facilities in 13 different countries.

This cannot go on. Those who lived, worked, and survived in Willowbrook can attest to the health risks EtO poses, and the industry argument that no other means to sterilize medical supplies exists is wrong. It might cost (initially) more to use other, safer methods to achieve similar results, but there are several alternatives to EtO for virtually all of its current uses. The simplest solution, then, is that we stop all ethylene oxide usage, and I would argue, that is the best long-term solution. As we transition to that outcome (as quickly as possible, with specific legislation and many, many inspections to ensure compliance with various ordinances…check that, strict ordinances…in place), we should at the very least ban EtO emissions in all population areas. It is unclear if there is a “safe” level of exposure to what is classified as a carcinogen; the question then becomes why would we continue the unsuccessful experiment of releasing EtO in populated areas when we already know the damage exposure has caused in the past? Why should people have to live near a source of breast cancer, lymphomas, and fertility/miscarriage problems? The faster we stop using this toxic gas for industrial purposes, the better.

Second, we need to do a better in notifying people of health risks to which they were exposed due to where they lived or worked in the past. I know that privacy is very important and an endangered concept in our society, but a central data base with a history of where we have lived and worked makes sense as we discover how more and more of the “wondrous” inventions humans created actually have a dark side which have been inflicting harm to other humans for a long time. This resource is crucial especially since that harm is often undiscovered for many years after those affected have left an area where the actual cause/effect relationship took place. If a data base like this had been in place in the case of Willowbrook’s Sterigenics plants, for example, it would have been possible to create a contact list of those who might have been impacted by EtO release and quickly let them know.

As it is, thousands of people are probably unaware of what took place in Willowbrook; in our small South past employees notification project, for example, most of the people we reached were learning about their EtO exposure for the first time: Once people leave an area, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to tie their future illnesses to their past living or working arrangements. And to the best of my knowledge (limited, admittedly), there have been few if any efforts to contact past employees or residents about the dangers to which they were exposed by any of the businesses and organizations located even closer to the Willowbrook plants than Hinsdale South was. No one here is accusing anyone of anything, but the Willowbrook Police Department, a Marriot hotel, a Target, a Denny’s, a Starbucks, and a host of other businesses, schools, and governmental agencies are all much closer to where the Sterigenics plants were than Hinsdale South High School was. What, if any, efforts have been made to find and inform all the people who worked in and around these two toxic plants? No matter how much publicity this issue garners, as our South Notification Project illustrated, most people do not have enough information to make the connections unless someone provides them with the facts. In an information age, we still have many gaps in our ability to inform, unfortunately.

From anticipating future health issues to participating in lawsuits to hold responsible parties accountable, this kind of knowledge is vital and should be readily available to everyone who may have been affected by these types of health issues. But that is not currently the case. If only there were a resource where addresses for every place we worked or lived was collected…but wait, there already is. As anyone who helped to track down those who had worked at South over twenty years ago can tell you, all you need is a name and a past city/state of residence (and if a name is unusual enough, that alone is enough), and you can use the Internet to find just about anybody right now. Using all the data we currently provide to Amazon—without a second thought in order to get moisturizer delivered to our doors in two days—instead so we can safeguard our health doesn’t seem like a huge sacrifice to me.

Even if we won’t allow that kind of Big Brother data collection (but please don’t kid yourself that you aren’t already willingly participating in exactly that, unless you emulate Ron Swanson), at the very least we should have a notification option through our local governmental agencies or employers. When you move or leave a job, you should be able to leave contact information on file, should the need ever arise when it is in your interests to be contacted. Under this less effective but more voluntary system, it would then become your responsibility to update that information with your various past addresses and/or places of employment over the years, any time you relocated or changed jobs. This practice, which I’m guessing is at least partially in place with many organizations already, would be an additional chore on top of all the other chores you’d have when you move as well as another data entry/filing task for someone in the HR department; but it’s better than nothing. A national data base is the best solution, in my opinion, but I do recognize the privacy issues which then arise, thus requiring tough security to make sure this kind of personal information is carefully guarded and regulated. Between newly accepted health/pandemic needs for contact tracing, residence/employment tracing wouldn’t be that much of a stretch.

It’s clear that achieving the needed reforms unleashed by the results of Sterigenics ignoring the EPA’s recommendation that EtO should not be released in a densely populated area is far from finished. The progress we’ve made so far, however, is largely due to the efforts of Stop Sterigenics, a group which educated itself on the issues, ignored conventional wisdom, and took on powerful opposition forces in an epic David versus Goliath confrontation. That David won this round needs to be celebrated and called to everyone’s attention. Thank you so much, Stop Sterigenics, and congratulations again on DuPage County’s recognition of your selfless work on our behalf! But as illustrated by the South past-employee Notification Project, David is going to need lots more volunteers to pick up their slingshots and sally forth against corporate Goliaths, foes armed with expensive legal teams and political influence. Combatting multi-national corporations, governmental bureaucracy, and general indifference, Stop Sterigenics has shown us all the way forward, and it is up to all of us to help finish that work.

For a complete timeline and documentation on how the village of Willowbrook has kept track of the Sterigenics issues, see this link. For more on improving public schools, you can check out my eBook, excerpts of which can read here.